“Cei care cred că a citi înseamnă o fugă de realitate se situează la polul opus adevărului: a citi înseamnă a te plasa în prezenţa realului în starea sa cea mai concentrată - ceea ce, în mod bizar, este mai puţin îngrozitor decît să ai de-a face cu permanentele lui diluări.”
― Amélie Nothomb, quote from Antichrista
“Нещастието си има и добрите страни: вкъщи вече разполагах със стаята си и с правото да чета. Никога не бях чела толкова, колкото в този период: поглъщах книгите както за да компенсирам дългото нечетене, така и за да мога да посрещна приближаващата криза. Тези, които смятат, че четенето е бягство, са много далеч от истината: да четеш, означава да се сблъскаш с реалността в най-концентрирания й вид, което, колкото и да е странно, е по-малко ужасяващо от това да си имаш работа с размитите й форми.”
― Amélie Nothomb, quote from Antichrista
“Quanto a me, le storie di vittime e carnefici mi irritavano oltre misura. Forse per questa ragione non avevo mai avuto un amico o un'amica: avevo visto troppe volte, al liceo e altrove, il nobile nome dell'amicizia accostato a oscure schiavitù inaccettabili, a sistemici dispositivi di umiliazione, a nauseanti sottomissioni, fino a comportamenti da capro espiatorio.
Avevo dell'amicizia una visione sublime: se non era alla Oreste e Pilade, Achille e Patroclo, Montaigne e La Boétie, perché tu sei proprio tu, e io sono proprio io, allora non la volevo. Se lasciava spazio alla minima bassezza, alla minima rivalità, all'ombra di un' invidia, all'ombra di un'ombra, la respingevo a pedate.”
― Amélie Nothomb, quote from Antichrista
“That was what university was: thinking you were going to open yourself up to a universe, and meeting nobody.”
― Amélie Nothomb, quote from Antichrista
“I had always been alone and wouldn't have minded if it had been a matter of choice. It never had been. I dreamed of being integrated, if only to give myself the luxury of subsequently disintegrating.”
― Amélie Nothomb, quote from Antichrista
“I had this notion of passionate love: if it ever happened to me, I wouldn't be able to imagine a moment's separation. What could you bear to have between the loved one and yourself, apart from the blade of a sword?”
― Amélie Nothomb, quote from Antichrista
“If I had been deceived, it was because, for a moment, I had loved. 'I am one of those who love, not those who hate,' declares Sophocles' Antigone. No one has ever said anything more beautiful.”
― Amélie Nothomb, quote from Antichrista
“Încă de mică pierdusem şirul fetiţelor cărora le oferisem inima mea şi care nu o voiseră.”
― Amélie Nothomb, quote from Antichrista
“In actual fact, creatures like Sabine and myself were the guilty ones: rather than approaching their kin and comforting one another, they loved beyond their means - they needed individuals a thousand miles from their own complexes, they needed Christas, radiant and seductive personalities. And then they were astonished that their friendships turned out badly, as though anything like that could possibly work, a panther with a mouse, a shark with a sardine.”
― Amélie Nothomb, quote from Antichrista
“Maybe my homesickness was a form of prescience because when I look back, it's the circumstances of this very car ride that I recognize as irretrievable: the experience of driving nowhere in particular with my sister, both of us seventeen years old, the open windows causing our hair to blow wildly; that feeling of being unencumbered; that confidence that our futures would inform the way we wanted them to and our real lives were just beginning.”
― Curtis Sittenfeld, quote from Sisterland
“When you want to make an impression and you think you’ve gone far enough, go a little further. Always leave them wondering if you’re just a little bit crazy, and people will never fuck with you again.”
― Penelope Douglas, quote from Corrupt
“In the end, how much distance lies between the truth and what we believe to be true? Between the things we feel at one time and the things we end up doing?”
― Susan Barker, quote from The Incarnations
“Things can stay safe for long
they can pretend to fit
but then you hear Discord's song
and things crack bit by bit.”
― Dawn Kurtagich, quote from The Creeper Man
“He thought the fear of death was perhaps the root of all art, perhaps also of all things of the mind. We fear death, we shudder at life's instability, we grieve to see the flowers wilt again and again, and the leaves fall, and in our hearts we know that we, too, as transitory and will soon disappear. When artists create pictures and thinkers search for laws and formulate thoughts, it is in order to salvage something from the great dance of death, to make something that lasts longer than we do.”
― Hermann Hesse, quote from Narziss und Goldmund
BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.
We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.
Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.